Experts convene to evaluate health reform

Problem Synopsis: Most proposals for health care reform advocated incremental change that would not remedy fundamental flaws in the health care system.

Synopsis of the Work: The FRESH-Thinking project (FRESH is an acronym for Focused Research on Efficient, Secure Healthcare) sponsored a series of meetings and the project directors wrote journal articles dealing with technical, economic, ethical, and policy issues in health care. Meeting attendees included academics, practicing physicians, industry representatives, and policy-makers.

Key Results: The 10 two-day workshops, on topics such as competition, outcomes assessment, and regulatory reform, drew from 20 to 28 participants. The one-day capstone conference drew 175 participants. The project produced two new journal issues and compiled previously published articles on health reform issues; they are available from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).